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How can I train my sales teams across the world on these new products

before they are launched?

I can’t let my teams go into the market without product knowledge. What can I do to ensure they have access to information when they need it the most?

We have introduced an organization-wide software to automate

all HR related activities.

How do I train my people spread across the globe? How can I

train them on activities specific to their roles and jobs?

If my learners come to the sessions with some basic knowledge, I’ll have more time to go in-depth and cover more.

Is there a quick way to help them brush up their basic subject knowledge before attending my sessions?

– Source: Brandon Hall (as cited in AC Education, 2016)

–Source: Towards Maturity (as cited in AC Education, 2016)

E-learning is the viable solution because of its potential benefits such as:

Affordability

Convenience

Flexibility

Cost saving

Quick implementation

According to ATD State of Industry Report 2014, 25% percent of training hours used were completed through an online course, with 16 percent using a self-paced online program. (ATD, 2014)

Organizations, on an average, reported 26% costs savings through the use of e-learning.

When a course is delivered as e-learning instead of classroom session, there is an average time saving of 35-45%.

A Few Quick Facts

Lack of top management support

Employee resistance

IT infrastructure bottlenecks

Lack of in-house expertise

Lack of knowledge regarding use and implementation

Budgetary constraints

Lack of Top Management Support

It is challenging and a complex task to:

Draft a Business Case

Convince top management

Employee Resistance

Employees resist getting trained with the support of technology

A few feel “disrespected” when assigned e-learning courses

IT Infrastructure Bottlenecks

Quality of the Learning Management Systems (LMS)

IT security issues, connectivity problems, navigation problems,limitations of technical support, etc.

Lack of In-house Expertise

Lack of time to develop courses in-house

Lack of resources skilled in Learning Design and technology

SMEs not interested in generating content

Lack of Knowledge Regarding Use and Implementation

Insufficient knowledge of e-learning

No idea of where to start

Budgetary Constraints

Needs huge initial investment (reduces cost by huge marginsin the long run)

Insufficient funding – training seen as important but noturgent

To overcome the forces discussed earlier and implement e-learning, the following factors need to be considered:

5 4

3 2

1

Basic objective of an E-learning Needs Assessment:

Identify problems where e-learning can provide effective solutions

Does your organization launch new products on a regular basis? How will you ensure your sales team is equipped to keep up with the latest developments and sell effectively?

Let us consider 3 common situations faced by most companies.

Situation 1 – Product Training

What are the business challenges for which e-learning is a potential solution in your organization? You can also think about unexplored

opportunities where e-learning can help.

Challenges Opportunities

Training sales people on newproducts even before they arelaunched in the market

Providing resources when needed,anywhere, anytime

Sales people dispersed globally

Increased profits

Improved sales efficiencies

Well-informed sales team

Increased customer retention

Have you introduced a new software application in your organization to speed up operations? How will you ensure your employees across the world will gain experience in using the system in quick time?

Challenges Opportunities

Ensuring employees overcomeresistance to change

Providing employeesopportunities to practice usingthe system in a realisticenvironment

Increased user acceptance

Quick adoption and usage of thesystem

Reduced operational errors

Improved ROI

In today’s digital world, how will you ensure your employees read policy documents and laws and stay compliant with your industry-specific legal, safety, and other requirements?

Situation 2 – Software Training

Challenges Opportunities

Increased employee compliance

Increased reputation

Decreased penalties

Ensuring employees read andretain legal and regulatorymandates

Ensuring employees adhere tocompliance requirements andavoid negative consequences

Situation 3 – Compliance Training

Which functional areas are impacted by the business challenge?

Who is assigned the responsibility of coming up with solutions?

What is the profile of the target audience?

► What is their educational and work-related background?

► What is their prior knowledge of the topic?

► What is their prior experience with e-learning?

What is the allocated budget and timeframe?

Who will be the reviewing authority and are the review cycles agreed on?

Who are the key decision makers for each issue?

How is the success of e-learning defined?

Target Audience: You will have a clear idea of whom the course is intended for – their current skills and challenges – and will be able to decide on the most effective solution.

Business Case: You will be able to prepare a comprehensive Business Case outlining the business challenge, proposed solution, timelines, budgets, approval cycles, etc., to convince top management.

Budget & Timelines: You will have an idea of the financial resources needed to implement the proposed solution. You will always have an estimate of the expected timelines for the project completion.

Success Measure: You will be able to define the changes to be brought about in employees’ performance by the training program. You will be able to decide on the key milestones to check progress. You will also be able to determine the reduction in costs, development time and increase in ROI.

’

Organizations today have a mix of:

Gen X (birth years ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s)

Gen Y (also called Millennials; birth years ranging from the early1980s to the early 2000s)

– Source: Pew Research Center (Fry, 2015)

Characteristics of Millennials:

Have very short attention spans and engaging their attention is ahuge challenge

Are very tech-savvy and adept at using technology

Are constantly on the move and need anytime, anywhere access toinformation

Are highly motivated and want to move into positions of authority

It is essential to keep this growing breed in mind – their needs and characteristics – while designing online training programs.

Millennials have now surpassed Gen X to become the largest generation in the American workforce.

They account for 53.5% of the workforce.

I’m on my way to meet a new prospect. I wish I had access to info on the product he’s interested in. It

would have helped me answer queries more effectively.

I wish I could access my training courses like this on my Smartphone during my

leisure hours.

This course on Finance Fundamentals is so boring and

going on since the last 20 minutes. Phew! Am bored. How will I ever

manage to finish it?

How do we help the Millennials?

We need to offer innovative training programs to cater to the unique needs of Millennials. The same old page-turner courses will not do.

Mobile learning: Create byte-sized online modules compatible with all mobile devices – Smartphones, iPads, Android devices – that learners can access anywhere, anytime.

Microlearning: Create short, 3-5 minute learning modules that focus on 1-2 learning points. This will help knowledge retention as cognitive load isreduced.

Video-based learning: Millennials are highly visual and do not like text-heavy content. Develop short videos using different visual strategies that will engage them.

Also, create video-based courses by including short video snippets wherever possible.

Gamification: Millennials grew up playing games and carry this passion into the workplace. Channel this potential and create game-based courses that will engage their attention and make them want to complete the game (course).

To be able to deliver e-learning, you need to establish a complete e-learning system with a robusttechnology framework.

Along with the basic infrastructure such as a network, LAN, Internet connectivity, servers, and firewalls, the important element you need is a Hosting Option where courses can be made available to employees from a centralized location.

Common hosting options include:

Intranet

SharePoint

Learning Portal

Learning Management System (LMS)

An LMS is a software that facilitates the delivery and management of learning content to learners.

The LMS can host all types of courses which learners can access via unique user names and passwords.

LMS administrators can manage learners and courses remotely.

The system generates reports for management to evaluate the training effort.

You have a variety of options to choose from:

Proprietary or commercial LMSs

Open Source LMSs

However, the trend is moving towards using OpenSource LMSs, with Moodle being the most popular.

Major functions of an LMS :

Site management

User management

Course management

Report generation

Based on the kind of courses you need, evaluate whether the training need can be best met by Ready-to-use or Off-the-shelf content or whether you need customized content.

Convert existing ILT material into e-learning

Do you have classroom material?

Are they available as PowerPointdecks, facilitator guides, participanthandouts, etc.?

Are your SMEs willing to generatecontent?

Ask these questions:

YES N

O

Check out off-the-shelf or catalogue content

Any company doing some form of training will always have content!

Converting the available material into e-learning just needs suitable tweaking and treatment.

What NOT to Do What to Do

Organizations sometimes overlook what they already have and try to reinvent the wheel by developing content from scratch.

This approach would be costly, time-consuming, and can cause a complete breakdown of processes and programs.

Look at what you already have and identify content best suited to e-learning.

Leverage your existing content by converting to e-learning using Rapid Authoring tools.

This saves a lot of time and cost.

Provide sales people up-to-date information about new products.

Train service technicians and customer reps to handle issues effectively.

Train employees on new software applications and tools introduced to

improve operational efficiencies.

Educate employees on industry-specific legal and regulatory mandates to ensure

compliance and avoid penalties.

E-Learning is best suited for acquiring KNOWLEDGE – concepts, facts, principles,methods, procedures, processes, policies, and so on.

It is well suited for certain levels of skill development such as:

Develop an effective Business Case for

e-learning

Let’s look at each step in detail.

Run a Pilot Program and measure the effectiveness

Scale Up your

e-learninginitiative

1

2

3

Present a comprehensive Business Case that will help you convince top management and key stakeholders to take up and support e-learning.

Top management support will go a long way in convincing employees to embrace e-learning initiatives.

A typical Business Case template you can use to convince your top management:

1. Define the business challenge to be addressed

2. Define how you will use e-learning to solve the problem

3. State what you want to accomplish

4. Identify the existing training methodology

5. List out the resources needed

6. List out the alternatives

7. Compare alternatives & state the benefits

8. Define the action steps

9. Define the evaluation criteria

Run a Pilot Program and measure the effectiveness of e-learning.

Here is how you can do this:

1. Take a broad look and select a group to run a pilot test

2. Select a training topic where e-learning can really help

3. Offer a pilot test to identify potential roadblocks or technical glitches

4. Make necessary corrections in your strategy and scale up

Before implementing e-learning on a larger scale, you need to take a decision on whether to develop in-house or outsource.

Outsource IF:

Phase Criteria

Analysis Lack of time, perspective

Course Design Lack of design capabilities

Components’ Development

Need graphically rich interactivities or Learning Objects

Course Development Your design and development standards are NOT well defined or mature

LMS Set Up and Administration

NO dedicated Service/Administration Team to ensure system works smoothly

We will deal with Outsourcing in

detail in our next Ebook.

4 tips to help you choose the ideal vendor.

The ideal vendor should:

Have samples/demos: Gauge the competence of the vendor in handling different subjects and developing different types of trainings by asking for and viewing samples of their previous work and showcase templates. You can also get a prototype developed to check their capabilities.

Possess references to communicate credibility: A good e-learning vendor will not think twice to provide references of its existing clients. Check out those references, judge the vendor’s reliability and take the final decision.

Have experience working with global e-learning companies: A vendor who has worked with organizations similar to yours will be oriented towards your requirements and you will save time on initial steps.

Also, a vendor who worked with global companies will have an idea of cultural and linguistic semantics and be adept at developing courses for global audiences.

They will be confortable working across different geographies and time zones.

Specialize in learning design and have a qualified team: E-learning courses are muchmore than just inserting contentin templates and publishing in arapid authoring tool. They willbe effective only when alignedto your business goals andlearner needs.

A vendor proficient in learning design principles; having a cohesive team of instructional and visual designers, quality experts, authoring tools specialists, and project managers will be a huge asset.

Get started with these

5 simple manageable steps!

Overcome the restraining forces using these 5 steps:

Assess the need for e-learning

Examine your learners’ readiness

Evaluate infrastructure requirements

Assess content readiness

Decide on the implementation strategy

AC Education. (2016). The business case for E- learning. Retrieved

from AC Education:

http://www.ac-education.co.uk/the-business-case/

ATD. (2014). 2014 State of the Industry report. Online: ATD.

Fry, R. (2015, May 11). Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest

generation in U.S. labor force. Retrieved from Pew Research Center:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/11/millennials-

surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s-labor-force/

Convert ILT material into instructionally sound, visually appealing, engaging eLearningcurriculums, virtual sessions, and other digital learning formats.

Convert legacy courses developed in Flash or any other authoring tool to HTML5, evenwithout the source files.

Translate English eLearning courses into 35 international languages – both text andaudio.

About Us CommLab India is the most sought-after global leader for its rapid eLearning solutions. It has been ranked first among top providers of Rapid eLearning and Blended Learning Solutions for 2020 by eLearning Industry.

With our formidable authoring tools expertise and decades of experience in corporate training and instructional design, we offer rapid eLearning solutions for speed, scale, and value…with any authoring tool!

What we do:

Get in Touch

www.commlabindia.com

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